Hockey pucks can cause foot and ankle injuries even through modern hard-shelled plastic boots, in part because the fit of modern hockey skate boots is intentionally tight. The problem is worsened by the use of composite-material hockey sticks, which throw the puck faster than wooden sticks. The unsportsmanlike “slashing” of another player's feet with a hockey stick can also cause foot injuries.
Tie-on or strap-on ankle protectors have been known for many years, and the present inventor can recall cardboard-and-leather and plastic-and-leather protective cups either tied or strapped onto the exterior of a hockey skate boot directly over the anklebone area.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,829,170 to Lutz, Jr. shows a removable protective shell cover molded into a boot-fitting shape, covering the upper and sides (including the ankle region), and fastened with straps running behind the heel and under the sole of the boot. The strap ends are folded and secured through slots in an effort to uniformly space the shell off the boot to allow the shell to absorb and dissipate impact away from the surface of the boot. The strap arrangement also specifically tensions the upper surface of the shell against the boot lacing on top of the boot, using the lacing to help define the gap and to serve as a cushion. The shell is molded from a flat blank with constant thickness, and thus only “approximates” the shape of the boot and does not cover or wrap around any part of the heel area.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,234,230 to Crane et al. discloses a two-layer protective device with a fabric “support layer” that secures behind the heel with hook-and-loop fastener, underneath the sole with elastic, and is tied into the boot's lace system with grommets. The support layer does not cross the top of the boot, but provides side panels equipped with hook-and-loop fastener that removably accepts thick flat protective pads. The pads have an L-shape that protects the sides of the foot and the ankle. The top of the foot can be protected with an optional pad fastened across the top of the boot and connected to the side panels of the support layer, again with hook-and-loop fastener. There is no protection of the heel area, and Lutz, Jr. criticizes the Crane et al. device as complicated to put on and take off, heavy, and prone to having the padding ripped off during a game.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,351,537 to Seidel discloses a three-part boot shell with a rigid sole/toe/heel/Achilles-supporting base portion, a soft flexible padded sock portion that drops into the base portion, and a rigid upper shell that fits over the sock and has buckles on lower side flanges and in back behind the Achilles area for rigidity and support. While protection is not the primary focus of the three-part shell, Seidel mentions that the upper shell does protect the foot. The instep area of the upper shell is flexible, and the shell has no heel or Achilles portion, so that it can “be sprung or opened” to assemble it over the sock and to cooperate with the pivoting Achilles-protector portion of the base.
The present inventor has also tried using an elongated shin guard secured around the ankle with tape or straps. Although this arrangement provides some additional protection to the ankle, it is bulky, and some argue that it impedes the legs' forward flex. Further, it does not provide any protection to the sides of the boot and only minimal protection to the lace area.